Broken halos, broken wings, broken love

Everyday, there is a new "news" report about the Catholic Church, the retiring Pope, the malfeasance of the priesthood, and every day my heart breaks a little for the Church and her people. Even if 90% of what the media says is not true, the media is still saying it, and people are still believing it. And it would seem as though the Church has brought this mess down upon themselves, and down upon all of the Christian faith.
Some of what they are saying is undoubtedly true. Religions officials caught up in sex scandals. Pedophile priests. Ministers stealing money form their own churches. Preachers preaching Love and going home and beating their wives and daughters. And then there is what the body of Christ is out there doing in His name. Blowing up abortion clinics, homophobic tirades on public transits, militant anti-god-only-knows-what rallies by the Westboro Baptist Church. Ministries teaching hate to youth in the guise of good Biblical indoctrination.
And I know the arguments. Not the ones trying to defend the actions, but the ones trying to defend the people;they're only human, they make mistakes, they're trying just like everyone else. "They're not perfect, just forgiven," (That one's my favorite.)
What happened to my God of Love? What happened to the "Greatest Commandment upon which the whole of the Law and the prophets hang"? (Matt :36-40) Is it being slowly ground under? Is it being lost to an ever increasing sense of secularism based on the wanton desires of the flesh?Sex, money, power? I don't know about the rest of you, but I want my God back!

AN OPEN LETTER
  To all Priests and officials of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, all the way up the the Pope: You are the oldest traditional body in Christianity! You are the face of Christianity to the majority of the world. You don't get to be human, you get to be more-human-than-human! It's not that you aren't allowed to make mistakes, you just are not allowed to make THESE kinds of mistakes! I am not Catholic, but I look up to the Catholic Church like a big brother.
  To the Ministers of the protestant and other modern church movements: Same goes! You are God's rep's here on Earth. Either step up, or step back. You are meant to be leading His people to salvation in and by the Love of God. If you are not doing that because you are caught up in this other nonsense, then you need to step back, take a long hard look at yourselves and what you are doing wrong, and make it right!
  To the Body of Christ: Learn to think. Learn to discern. You know deep down inside what is right and what is wrong. Someone told me recently that the problem with the Church was not with the people but with the leadership. I called BS. The people ARE the leadership. Rise up and be responsible Christians. Be prophets in your own Church if needs be. Get back to the Greatest Commandment at all costs.
  All-in-all, you are the Servants of God! Grow up and act like it. Quit making it so damn hard for the rest of us to profess our love for God and Christ!

+BLESSINGS+

  A Post-script to all non-Christians: I am sorry to and for those of you who have a poor opinion of Christianity. I suppose we have earned it. But I tell you, 1500 years of screwing up the truth doesn't change the truth into something screwed up. It just makes it harder and harder for the next generations to find. The good news is that it is out there. Christianity has a mystical tradition at it's core that has been overlooked and ignored for too long. It is a beautiful tradition, and worthy of of redeeming the whole of Christianity's broken history.

The Message of Truth

It is a message of such astonishing beauty that most people are unable to even bare the thought of it. We have strayed almost too far, and forgotten almost too much of what we knew in the beginning. The message has been obfuscated by eons of ego and misunderstanding. It has been stolen by man and his quest for truth. A quest that has been derailed and transformed into a petty scramble for power. A power that can never satisfy. A power that can never compare. Truth has been mutated and deformed into lies. The truth of the heart into the lies of the mind. Can any one person undo for themselves a millennium of millenniums of heartache? Of the pain of separation. Oh, how we long to return to... have we forgotten where?

Writer's Block and Spiritual Direction

So, I know it has been a while since I have posted anything. I have discovered that I know that I have writer's block when my inspirational articles start sounding like a technical manual. I was working on an article on Sin and Repentance, Confession and Forgiveness when I bogged down and out. Perhaps I will finish it soon, perhaps not. We will see how the Spirit moves me.

In the meantime, I had my first meeting with Father. R. today regarding my desire to join the priesthood. We had an excellent hour-and-a-half discussion that, to be honest, left me somewhat intimidated, a little discouraged, and at the same time a little scared-yet-excited about what the future may yet bring.

"It is a process." he would tell me. A process that could take up to 10 years AFTER my bachelor's degree, and then with no guarantee of an ordination. "But you have to let go and trust the process," he would conclude. I am truly trying to take an Ignatian "detachment" approach to this. I hope and pray that I can.

I am a little concerned about choosing Liberty U. as my college for my bachelor's program. They are a very conservative Baptist university, and I hold some reservations about what their science and theology classes are going to be like. I am still planning to pursue my BS in Religion with my minor in Christian Counseling. I am hoping to do my Master's somewhere like Candler. We'll see.

That's all for now folks. Thanks for tuning in, and hopefully I will get back in the swing of things soon.

+AMDG+